


What We Learn Along the Way

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Series: Flufftober 2019 [17]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 12:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21074798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: Izzy wants to learn the game Jace is playing, first just out of curiosity, and then not only because of the lessons she's learning but the time she's spending with her brother.





	What We Learn Along the Way

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober Day 17: Chess

When Jace disappears for a few hours in the middle of the day, Izzy doesn’t think anything of it at first. After all, Jace is new to their family, and to the Institute, so it isn’t weird to think he just wants some time away once and a while. It isn’t until Izzy notices he’s leaving at the same time every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that her curiosity gets the better of her and she follows him. 

She doesn’t know where she’s expecting him to lead her, but it certainly isn’t to the park at a table with some sort of board game set up. She hangs back and watches as Jace takes an empty seat across from an older man, starts a timer, and begins to move the pieces. She can tell by the way his brows furrow and the way he  _ really _ takes his time that he’s concentrating very hard. 

She tries to stay hidden but a few times she thinks she sees him looking over at her. He doesn’t get up his table, though, and she watches until the timer nearly runs out, except Jace knocks over one of the other man’s pieces instead, and they both smile and shake hands. 

“So this is what you keep sneaking out for?” Izzy asks, approaching Jace. 

“I’m not sneaking out, Maryse knows I’m here. I think she’s glad to get me out of her hair for a little while each day,” he says, and though he laughs she isn’t sure he means the laugh. They’re both teenagers now, after all, and she knows that having three of those running around the Institute - especially when the three are her, Alec, and Jace - might be a bit  _ much _ on top of everything else she’s in charge of as Head of the New York Institute. 

“...what’s that?” Izzy asks, pointing to the pieces he’s putting away into bags to change the subject. 

“Chess,” he says simply. “It’s a game.” 

“Can I play?” She asks eagerly, hopping into the now-empty seat the older man occupied before. 

“No, Isabelle. It’s… complicated. There’s a lot of strategy, and you don’t know the rules,” Jace says, not unkindly. 

“Oh…” Izzy frowns. “Can you teach me?” she asks instead. 

Jace hesitates, but seeing the eager look in her eyes ends up dumping the bag of pieces back out onto the board. “Okay,” he agrees “But only if you promise to  _ really  _ pay attention.” 

“Promise!” Izzy swears, eagerly bouncing in her seat. She doesn’t pick up much that first day, and Jace is definitely right: it’s not easy. She almost doesn’t want to come back, but she’s eager to have something she can do with Jace that isn’t just sitting around the Institute and training, so she keeps asking, and he keeps agreeing to show her more. 

He has to keep telling her not to make the first move she sees - that it’s about stepping back and looking at the big picture. 

“My dad taught me how to play. He said the ‘critical thinking’ is good practice for missions, and coming up with quick strategies in a fight,” Jace tells her one day, and that’s all the motivation she needs for it to finally start to click. 

She stands up and takes a step away from the table, and Jace laughs. 

“Not  _ literally _ , Iz. It’s a saying-” he starts, but she shushes him from her new standing position and really looks over  _ everything _ before making her next move. 

Jace eyes it for a few seconds before giving her a nod. “Nice one,” he agrees, and Izzy grins before taking her seat again. “Now you’re thinking about  _ all _ the pieces - when you make a decision, you have to make the best one for everyone, not just one person, or piece.” 

Izzy nods studiously, and though she loses that game, too, she doesn’t feel so bad about it because she’s getting better, she can feel it! 

They keep this up for a while - Jace showing up to play his usual round before staying longer to work with Izzy. While he plays Izzy watches him and some others playing around them, observing as much as she can. Mostly she loves the extra time she gets to spend with Jace. They talk while they play, Izzy hearing a few stories from his childhood that he doesn't often share, and enjoying the time alone with him without Alec or Hodge or a bunch of other Shadowhunters around. 

She might not be the best at it but she’s getting there, even if she wants to quit in frustration a few times because she never wins - not even the fake winning Alec does sometimes where he loses a game or a sparring match on purpose just to make her feel better (he doesn’t realize she can tell most of the time). 

“If I let you win then you’re never going to learn where you’re making mistakes,” Jace points out. “You’ll thank me for it one day, I promise,” he reassures her. 

And she does thank him: once when she nearly shouts her first proud “checkmate!” in the park, and again when she gets top marks in a strategic mission scenario from Hodge after reminding herself to step back and look at the big picture.

She’s almost afraid that Jace won’t want to play with her any more now that she has a good enough grasp on the game that she doesn’t strictly need to learn from him, and so one day as Jace grabs his bag to go to the park she lingers behind hesitantly. 

Jace gets as far as the door before pausing and turning back to face her.    
  
“Come on! You aren’t going to leave me without my favorite opponent today, are you?” he calls back to her, waiting. 

Izzy smiles, shaking her head quickly before running to join him. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
